Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Lindsay Blain, Creator of Self Worth to Wealth Discussing Selling with Confidence Starts Within

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Lindsay Blain—wife, mom of three, and travel industry mentor living just outside of Memphis, TN. She became a travel agent while pregnant with her daughter, driven by the dream of staying home with her kids while contributing financially to their family. But like many, she struggled to make it work—juggling motherhood, self-doubt, and the uncertainty of where to start. Everything changed when she discovered a system that transformed her business. In her first year using it, she booked over a million dollars in travel.Fast forward to today: Her business partner, Kim, and Lindsay built Castle Explorers, a thriving agency with nearly 100 agents, and their business has grown to over $15 million in travel sales. But her true passion? Mentoring and coaching travel agents. Lindsay believes success isn’t just about knowing how to book trips—it’s about confidence, mindset, strategy, and having the right support system.If you're ready to build a thriving travel business, break past the struggles holding you back, and create the freedom you’ve always dreamed of, she can’t wait to help you get there. Let’s make it happen together!Learn more: http://www.selfworthtowealth.com/

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Lindsay Blaine, who's the creator of self-worth to wealth and we'll be talking about selling with confidence. Lindsay, welcome back to the program. Hey, Mike. It's so great to be back.

Hey, so I know we're talking about your coaching and mastermind and helping other travel agents improve their lives, personally and professionally. And I think that a lot of people get thrown off with the word selling, right? So selling with confidence, yay, but selling. Some people feel like I just don't want to be a salesperson. So start us off talking about how you help people get past. even that mental roadblock of just, I'm in the sales business. I thought I was going to help people, you know, with travel. It's so true.

You know, I sold insurance for years, probably seven or eight years. And that was selling. I feel like travel, when you look at travel, travel is great because it's almost like you just have to tell people about it and educate people that travel agents are amazing and can help you. do a great thing, but sales is a little bit different. So when I started, we had just had our first baby and I knew that I wanted to stay home as a mom. And so I was looking for something that I could do just a few hours that would make. All we needed was $600 a month from my husband took care of everything

else. So I'm like, okay, I need to make up the difference and a little bit extra if we want to do fun things. So we were, had only been married a few years. And I found, on insurance because my mom was doing insurance at the time and she was like, you should try this. And so I remember looking into it and really liking it because it was very flexible and I could set my own schedule and I could do it when I had time and I only had to spend a few hours away from my new, brand new baby that we struggled to, we struggled with infertility for about five years. And so it was really important to me to be home as much as possible. And so I, that's where I sort of learned how to do sales. And if I had known at the time that I could sell like

Disney vacations or all inclusives rather than insurance, I mean, but you know, everything happens for a reason. And so selling is just about talking about what you do. And it really is, we talk a lot about the mind shift of sales, but it's actually serving. So you're not selling yourself. You're not a used car salesman. But in this industry, so many people and so many travel agents are struggling because they're trying to sell or they're posting about resorts or room tours or why this place is really great to go to when everyone else, all the thousands and thousands of travel agents out there could do that exact same thing. But this is a service industry business. And if you can change your mindset from selling to serving a client or helping to fill a need for people,

it makes a huge difference because then you're working towards filling something for them and serving them. And it's not like you're saying, please work for me. Please, like, help me, let me work for you and something. It's very self-centered. But if you selflessly serve, it makes all the difference in the people that you attract. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think even just reframing, like what you just did there is a reframe. Like, it's not selling. You know, it's not like fitting a square peg in a round hole. It's not like the cliche used car salesman.

What's it going to take to get you in this car today? You know, it's like serving. And if we, and if we think of it through the lens of serving, well, how do you serve? Well, what do you need me to do? Well, now it's like questions. It's conversation. And then it's like, oh, well, if you need that, well, we do this. Do you think that would help you out?

So I think it's just that mindset shift. And you say that selling with confidence starts with how self-worth shapes the way you show up. Your coaching program is called self-worth to wealth. Why is self-worth so crucial? And why is that the best place to start in building your business? Because if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will. And I feel like starting. that out in this Instagram,

picture perfect Pinterest world where everyone thinks that their house has to be clean all the time to be able to record a video or they have to have a full face of makeup to even like have people listen to them. It's not true. There's, there are so many more people out there that are

just real women and real men and real people that want to hear from real life experience. And, you know, the people that I value and love and really look up to the most are usually the ones that are the most humble, the ones that struggle with this principle and working towards being comfortable in your skin and starting

with that little piece of the puzzle of knowing who you are, feeling confident in what you bring to the table, and to feel like what you have to say and what you have to give to people is a value is where it all begins. And if you can feel like what you're doing is a value that you're solving a problem, but you're doing it from a place of love, it makes all the difference. And I feel like there was one thing for me about 10 years ago as I was working with a mentor of mine that I still have to this day. She's incredible.

I think it's important for everybody to have a mentor and somebody that they can help get them out of their heads. But one of the things that she taught me is that all of those thoughts that are coming into your head, everybody has those thoughts. So those negative thoughts, the fears, the worries, those are all such a real thing. And so many people are afraid to move forward, but they don't know that every step that I've taken to do things that have ended up being successful, it all started with full of fear, full of word and insecure. and not feeling like enough. And like I said before, like having not sure people wanted to come and do what we were doing and and be a part of our agency and now look at it. It's easy to say that now.

But back at the time, when things start, it's terrifying. And it's just remembering who you are and stepping and taking those little tiny steps, even through the fear and knowing to put that fear in its place. You know, you mentioned thoughts. And I've heard it said, I'm a big. for my whole life, it seems like, even starting at college, you know, personal development. You know, when you work hard on yourself, you can succeed in other areas over your life. So when you were talking about those thoughts have reminded me of this phrase, have you ever

heard of rats, R-A-T-S? No. What is that? It stands for really awful thoughts. Yep. You know, and number one, we all get them and probably all throughout the day. but we have to take the time to be aware and take those thoughts captive and then do something with them. And so I think that whole thing we're talking about here with self-worth. You know, we're going to be, you know, we're our own worst enemy or best advocate.

But when we can realize those rats and get them exterminated with good positive thoughts. So it made me think of this. Once you have a little bit of some success in creating that momentum, talk a little bit about why it's good to kind of keep track of that to then when those rats, you know, raise their rear their ugly head to then reflect back on, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I did help that one client. Boy, they were really excited. And I'm going to read that testimonial letter they sent in because that's where I need to be serving.

Absolutely. You know, one of the things that I teach in this class is the crazy chick in your head. So for all the women, you know, there is a crazy chick that lives inside. your head or a roommate. There's different people that talk about it. And it is your brain's job. Absolutely is your brain's job to help protect you from anything, any danger, right? So anything that is out of the norm, anything that is scary or vulnerable or or different from being comfortable, it's your brain's job to try to stop that with all its power to keep you comfortable. And so that crazy person in your head that's talking sometimes, what I teach our agents to do is to look at that

voice and to hear what it's saying and to know that that is actually not who you are. It's somebody that is narrating your life and that has an opinion about everything. And I was talking to one of our agents and he was talking about these thoughts that come to his head and how much it's a struggle and it's keeping him from being happy. And when I was telling him this principle, about how that's not who he actually is. He is somebody that's deeper and he is watching and letting those thoughts take over who he actually is. It was like this light bulb moment for him because he realized, like it gave him the reason like,

hey, I'm not crazy. This isn't who I truly am. There was this huge disconnect. And so being able to conquer that voice and to say, okay, that's interesting. As those thoughts come in, you're like, okay, you're like, okay, you're. You're really nervous and worried about taking this next step or to posting a video of your face on social media. Okay, I see you being afraid, but guess what? I'm going to do it anyways because I'm safe.

I'm fine. Everything's great. And that lies the difference. And there's a lot of tools that we teach. So getting past those things and listening to them and then doing it anyways, that is where you truly have power. When you accomplish something and step into that, like you were just talking about, when you do those things, it gives you this like such great feeling of strength and power when you do it afraid anyways. And the same with like having clients to look back on or having those experiences, writing those things down and pulling from past experiences. You felt so strong.

Those things are really important to remember and recall, just like you said. 100%. You know, I'm a big book reader and one of my favorite books is by Donald Miller building a story brand. And one of the things he talks about is what you were saying about the brain. And he goes, our brains are wired to conserve calories. Like, I don't want to think too hard about something. I just want, oh, if I need this, I'm going to go out and get this thing. I don't want to have to search all over and research. So what are you saying is as a business person, we need to make things simple and easy and understand because our

prospects don't want to expend much energy to make a decision to work with us. But also, one of the huge things there is it keeps us in our comfort zone. That's big. And guess what? Stepping into your power doesn't mean some huge, you know, cataclysmic thing. Sometimes it could just be like, we'll just post that one video up there. And people aren't going to laugh and point and sneer. And then when you start seeing that people are like, oh, hey, that was really helpful. I really appreciated what you said about. Then you're like, oh, okay, cool. Oh, I didn't put my makeup on today.

Oh, the wind blew my hair and it messed it up in the middle of the video. Okay. I'm human. It's so true. And people want to see that. They don't want picture perfect. And, you know, the videos that I will post that I took the least time on that I just put it up before I was afraid that I hardly did any pre. any pre-thought beforehand, those are usually the ones that resonate with people the most.

So if you can just take a step into who you are and to just do it before you chicken out, it's a huge deal. And you're totally right. People resonate with what's real. So if your self-worth needs a little bit of work, how does that impact a travel agent's ability to sell and attract client? Because the end result is to build a thriving business and to have success. But to do that, you need to have some clients. And to do that, you need to sell something or serve. But it all tracks back to improving that self-worth. And I guess the question is, how does it

impact? But then secondly, is it something where it's like, okay, cool, I got myself worth under control. Check that box next. I wish. I would. I mean, even things like this podcast, I'm like, all right, let's go. You just have to get past the fear of every little step on the. other side are these great incredible things and who you're meant to be, but you have to continue to work on it. Every little choice, every time. And when you think you have that little voice in your head controlled, it's like all of a sudden that it'll start talking to you in a different way where you're like, oh, wait, that is that crazy voice that's making me doubt in a different way. So it's

constantly trying to get back to who you are and who you're meant to be. And that's why that 15 months to focus every day is important because you have the tools. And sometimes I in the class, like I teach them to write down. If you're having a lot of negative thoughts or self-doubt, write it all down and then throw it away or rip it up or burn it, whatever you need to do to like get it out. So you feel like, okay, now what's left is who I really am and who I'm supposed to be really when it comes down to it. And truly putting yourself on social media is a very vulnerable, scary thing or putting yourself out there for people. And truly, it is just to help them to fill a need. So all of our agents at the core of what we do is taking the pressure off of moms, dads, like grandparents, people that are so busy living their life and doing their best where they are,

that they are losing track of of those memories and they're letting time go by without doing that because they don't have the time to research or look through it or plan it. It's like months and years go by without those things happening. And so we are filling a need for families that when you're a travel agent, it's more than just booking travel. It's feeling in need and helping to bring families together. and people together and create memories that will last for their whole life. You know, I look back on my life when I was younger and the trips are the things that I remember

the most. Yeah. Those connections. And that's the reason why my family is close. And that's what I wanted to do for other people. But that is the need we're filling. And if you remember truly why you're doing it and we talk a lot about why and creating that reason so you can go back to that when you're having a struggle.

But if you remember the deeper reason, it's not just, I need to post on social media today. It's who can I help? And one of the things that we talk about is stop thinking about the hundreds of people that you want to follow you. Stop looking at your views of your stories or your reals and how many people watched it and who commented and who liked it. Who cares, right? The whole world tells you that those metrics are the most important thing. But what we teach is who is the one person that I need to talk to today that I can help make a difference in life, that one person. And if you focus on the one, then you're going to help so many more people.

But if you're, if you're helping her or him, if you're helping that person, then you're going to fill a need for so many more people rather than let me see how many people can view me. 100% because it's almost like the have you ever been in a group like um you know i don't know after a meeting and you're shaking hands and you're going up to the speaker and they're shaking hands and chatting but they're they're looking around you past you above you it's like looking for the next person and it's like it's like i'm right here well when you're doing what you're describing if you're just trying to get those clicks and likes it's like i just want the numbers but in reality i want the results i want to make a difference in in this one person and in a marketing business standpoint, it's really defining your true target audience, who you want to serve, who you want to

help. I've even heard this. Once you, and I've had trainers say, once you've designed and defined your target audience, whether it's a male, female, family, whatever it is, get a picture, get, you know, get some stock photo and put it up in your computer so that when you're doing your lives or reels or webinars or whatever, you're literally speaking to that person. And it will help focus things in. But I really love that approach that you're saying because that's really selling with heart. Yeah. And to truly think about that person, if you do that and if you can focus on them, if you can make them feel like they're the most important person to you at that moment, because they are. If you can really be present with people like that, then the success is going to come,

just like how you said with that speaker looking over your head, if they had taken the time to just be present with exactly where they were instead of looking to the next thing or looking for what's better or looking for the big success story. That makes such a huge difference. And if people, if you get people that feeling, they're just going to flock to you. And it feels counterintuitive to be able to do that to just focus on one. But when you focus on one and one person, and yes, we teach people how to find their ideal client. I teach them how to do all of those steps. But at the Part of it is speaking to them, then all of the success and people are going to come. And then you're not selling trips.

You are serving people and they will just come to you in droves. Well, the great Zig Ziglar was known for saying, if you help enough people get what they want in life, you will end up getting what you want. And that's exactly what you've been talking about. That's exactly right. I love that. Perfect. Well, Lindsay's been great chatting with you about this powerful topic because nobody likes to sell, but everyone likes to serve. And if you can serve with confidence and that self-worth can be polished up in the process and you help people achieve what they want to help, you'll get what you need as well. So wrap us up with what's the best way that people can learn more about your program and reach out and connect with you. So just you can follow me on social media at on Instagram or TikTok. at Exploring with Lindsay.

And if you want a website, it's self-worth towealth.com. You can find us there and more information. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Thanks for having me. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes,

visit www. www.influentialentrepreneurs Radio.com.